Smart Systems for Renewable Energy - Video Notes

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and concepts from the lecture notes on smart systems for renewable energy.

Smart System

A system that combines sensing, actuation, and control to describe/analyze a situation and make predictive or adaptive decisions, enabling smart actions.

Sensing

Measuring environmental variables using sensors to acquire signals for the control system.

Actuation

Mechanism that converts control signals into physical action; actuation methods include optical, magnetic, thermal, mechanical, chemical, etc.

Control

Management of system behavior through algorithms and decision logic to achieve desired performance.

Closed-loop control

A feedback control where the output is measured and used to adjust the input for automatic correction.

Autonomous operation

Operation of a system without human intervention, enabled by feedback, energy efficiency, and networking.

Energy efficiency

Reducing energy use while maintaining or improving performance in a system.

Networking capabilities

Ability to communicate with other devices/networks for data exchange and coordination.

Passive Smart

Systems that respond to stimuli without electronic controls or feedback.

Actively Smart

Systems that use feedback loops to speed up recognition and response.

Very Smart / Intelligent

Systems that exploit nonlinear properties of sensor, actuator, memory, and/or feedback to tune the response.

Sensors

Devices that acquire signals by measuring environmental variations.

Actuators

Components that perform or trigger the required action in response to control signals.

Command-and-control unit

The component that makes decisions and issues instructions based on available information.

Smart Control System (SCS)

System providing feedback control for sensors and actuators; includes converters, amplification, filtering, control algorithms, DSP, and power supply.

A/D and D/A converters

Analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters that interface signals with digital processing.

Measurand

Quantity or physical property that a sensor is intended to measure.

Interfacing

Considerations of size, geometry, and mechanical properties for integrating sensors/actuators.

Sensor outputs

Possible outputs from sensors: thermal, magnetic, electrical, optical, mechanical, etc.

Environment

Conditions that can affect sensor performance (corrosive, thermal, magnetic, electrical).

Operational properties

Sensor properties such as sensitivity, bandwidth, linearity, gauge length, and operational range.

Functional Flow Diagram

Diagram showing inputs, status checks, decisions, corrections, and actuator commands to control the system.

Smart Grid

IEEE's concept of a grid with distributed generation, information networks, and system coordination.

Distributed generation

Electricity generation located near the point of use rather than centralized generation.

Storage (including SMES)

Energy storage technologies used to balance supply and demand; SMES stands for superconducting magnetic energy storage.

Wind Farms

Large-scale wind energy generation resources connected to the grid.

Rooftop Photovoltaics

On-site solar PV installations on buildings.

Smart Substation

An automated substation with advanced communication and control features.

Load as a Resource

Using electrical loads to provide grid services by adjusting consumption or providing demand response.